Malaysia's Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil met the Penan community in Batu Bungan, Baram, Sarawak, on 13th July 2010,amid fresh allegations that Penan women were raped by timber camp workers.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil flew into a remote area in Sarawak in the morning of 13th July 2010, to personally check on the issue and allegations of Penan Women being raped by timber camp workers.
Shahrizat during the meet the Penan session in Batu Bungan, Baram, Sarawak, 13th July 2010.
Shahrizat with Penan women in Batu Bungan, Baram, Sarawak, 13th July 2010
Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil flew into a remote area in Sarawak in the morning of 13th July 2010, to personally check on the issue and allegations of Penan Women being raped by timber camp workers.
Shahrizat who flew into Batu Bungan, Baram on board a convoy of 5 helicopters from Miri Airport, met the old and young of the Penan community, talked to them, mingled around and addressed them in the visit which lasted almost 3 hours.
She also assured them that the rape allegations are being seriously looked into and investigated by the Sarawak and Federal Bukit Aman police.
Shahrizat said she has been instructed to personally look into the plight of the Penan people in Sarawak by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, following fresh allegations of rape and sexual abuse of Penan women.
“It is not an easy straight-forward situation but I am very keen to reach out to them,” she told the local media upon her return from her fact-finding mission.
“I want to have a feel of the place and to have a chance to meet some of the Penan people face-to-face. I want to know how they feel and see how best the Government can help them. We already formed the National Task Force (NTF) to look specifically into the plight of Penan women and children, when the allegations first surfaced in 2009” she stressed.
During a briefing on the eve of her visit, Shahrizat told her team members that it was not right for government agencies and non-governmental organisations to make arm chair decisions from Kuala Lumpur without first consulting the very people who needed their help.
“We have to be very transparent and tell the real story, especially about the plight of Penan women and children in relation to these rape allegations,” she said.
“Rape is rape, there are no two ways about it. Whether it occurred in the deep jungle of Sarawak with Penans or in Kuala Lumpur, the perpetrators must be punished.
“The Penan community should know that now they have someone to champion their cause and that is us.”
Shahrizat also urged the police to take the Penan rape allegations seriously.
In a National Task Force report last year, the incidents of sexual abuse among Penan women and children, lack of access to basic services, including healthcare and education, and problems related to registration of identity cards and birth certificates were highlighted.
There are about 16,000 Penans living in Sarawak with about 300 of them leading nomadic life styles.
Meanwhile, the police are still waiting for the feedback from 36 non-governmental organisations (NGO) pertaining to the claims that seven more Penan women in Baram were raped by timber company workers.
Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Deputy Director (Intelligence and Operation) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said the NGOs which called themselves the Penan Support Group had been asked to provide further information about their claims.
Earlier, Acyrl Sani and Sarawak CID chief SAC II Huzir Mohamed accompanied Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to a visit to the Penan settlement in Batu Bungan, Baram near Miri.
Acryl Sani said police had opened 3 investigation papers following the latest claims but would need more information because some of the names of the women concerned were pseudonyms.
"We are not taking things for granted or covering up incidents which are against the law. This does not arise at all," he said in a Bernama report.
The Penan Support Group, in a report titled "A Wider Context of Sexual Exploitation of Penan Women and Girls in Middle and Ulu Baram" recently claimed that the information on the sexual abuse of Penan women were obtained during a visit to the area in November last year.
Poor Penans... hope for a permanent solution very very soon and bring those perpetrators to justice swiftly.
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